Summary
On 1 November satellite pictures showed an area of deep convective cloud located west of Sumatra and just south of the equator. A low of 1007 hPa developed near this cloud mass and drifted slowly southwards. During the next few days it moved south southwest with little apparent deepening.
During the 6th the system became more organised and was named tropical cyclone Bessi . Peak intensity in the Australian region was attained at 1200 UTC on the 11th with an estimated central pressure of 986 hPa and estimated maximum winds near the centre of 90 km/h. Bessi then moved into the Mauritius region of responsibility and was renamed Armelle .
A ship located 115 km east of the centre reported the strongest wind of 63 km/h from the northeast at 0200 UTC 10 November.
Bessi occurred west of 90°E when the Australian region extended to 80°E.
